The Skarphol's

Rottweilers Don't Jump

2009-03-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

Here is Bowser at Agility Training class on one of his not-so-great nights. He really doesn't like to jump. He CAN jump but he just doesn't want to most of the time. What a lazy dog! I guess we should have gotten a video of him the week before when he actually made most of the jumps. He does really well on all the other obstacles such as the A-frame, teeter-totter, and dog walk. His favorite is definitely the tunnel and he tries to go in the tunnel every chance he gets!

Feeding Time

2009-03-14T18:15:00.000-07:00

Part of my job at the airport includes feeding Thor, the cougar, and it's the only time that he is glad to see me. If I don't have a turkey leg in hand, he usually just runs away from me.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T14:46:00.000-08:00

We had a pretty quiet Thanksgiving--just us and Bowser. Of course we had to have turkey (even though it was kinda small. This year even Bowser got some turkey since our "tiny" turkey was still too much for two people. He REALLY liked it and, as you can see, it made him very sleepy, especially since we took him on a walk after dinner. He slept hard all night which WE really liked!

Reverse Paparazzi?

2008-09-06T09:10:00.000-07:00

So...the other day I was working at the airport and an interesting thing happened. It was a fairly slow day since it was raining but we ended up having a plane fly in. When the passengers came up to the office, one of the guys looked at me and exclaimed, "Where did you get that t-shirt?!". I was wearing one of my Tannahill Weavers shirts and I told him that I got it at a concert of theirs. For those unfamiliar with the Tannahill Weavers, they are a popular traditional band in Scotland. (Check out their website at www.tannahillweavers.com) They also happen to be one of my favorite groups. Anyway, apparently this guy is a good friend of the flute player and even stays at his house when he travels to Scotland! He ended up taking a picture of me so he could send it to his Tannahill Weaver friend, saying he found someone wearing one of their t-shirts at a small Iowa airport. So I guess I'm wondering if this was a form of reverse paparazzi--taking pictures of the common folk to send to a celebrity. Whatever it was, it was hilarious. I really haven't met anyone that knows who the Tannahill Weavers are and then I run into someone who is good friends with them. What are the odds?

Milkweed and Monarchs

2008-08-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

The milkweed plant in my meadow helped increase the Monarch butterfly population this year. I found five caterpillars munching away on it. They pretty much decimated the plant but that's why I planted it. Besides, the plant seems to be recovering now. Of the five caterpillars, I only found one chrysalis but I'm guessing the others just found better places to hide because I certainly have been seeing more Monarchs around!

Alaska Mountain Man

2008-07-27T13:09:00.000-07:00

Looking at the Anchorage Daily News website as I often do, I came across an article about Dick Griffith, a man I knew when I was volunteering at the Eagle River Nature Center. He is an amazing guy, your typical Alaska Mountain Man. Check out his story--it's an interesting one: Mountain Man

New Niece

2008-07-25T11:23:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I got a chance to meet my new niece, Danielle, who was adopted from China by my oldest sister and her husband back in November. Danielle and her sisters, Steffi and Liz, had a great time playing in the pool.

Bye-bye, birdy

2008-07-23T10:21:00.000-07:00

Just a few days after I took these pictures, the bluebirds left their nest. I guess I should be happy that they grew up but I miss them. I have seen the bluebirds a couple of times over the last week but it isn't the same. Two days after they left, some sparrows took over the box and have been making their own nest. So maybe we will have new baby birds soon.

Just Ducky

2008-07-04T18:06:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th to you! Our 4th of July flightseeing trip was just 'ducky' as you can see. We found not one, but two, duck fields. It was a beautiful day for flying and everything turned out just fine--no hot air balloons on the runway this time.

Bluebirds!

2008-06-30T12:03:00.000-07:00

Just before we left for Alaska, Jon built a bluebird house for me and we put it up. I didn't really expect to get bluebirds but I hoped to get some kind of bird nesting in it. Well, when we got back I found 4 bluebird eggs in it! So for the last week or so I have been enjoying watching the parents flying around in our backyard. Today I checked again and found that the eggs have hatched and there are now some teeny tiny ugly-cute baby bluebirds! I guess Jon builds good birdhouses! If you are interested in learning more about bluebirds or how to build a bluebird house, here is a link to check out:

http://www.iowadnr.gov/wildlife/files/bbird.html

Spoiled Dog

2008-06-24T11:23:00.000-07:00

For those of you concerned about our dog, Bowser, who was left in a kennel while we were in Alaska, here is an update on him. He did just fine though towards the end he got a bit stressed and came down with diarrhea. It was the longest we had left him there so I felt pretty sorry for him until we got back, picked him up and then I found out how much they spoiled him at the kennel. Apparently, the kennel workers adored him and one in particular took a special interest in him. He was given a blankie, got a visit every hour and was let out 4 times rather than the 2 that they usually do. The worker even called the next day to check on him to make sure he was doing okay (which he was--the diarrhea cleared up as soon as we got him home) and because she didn't have a chance to say good-bye to him. She thought he was such a sweet dog. I guess Bowser really knows how to work people over! But I'm glad he was taken care of so well! I must say that despite his being spoiled, he is very glad to be home now and we've been having fun playing in the yard and going for walks again.

Home Again

2008-06-21T18:03:00.000-07:00

Our trip to Alaska was great! The clouds were very low most of the time so we didn't get to see the mountains as much as I would like. When the clouds lifted several days into the trip, Jon was surprised to see just how many and how high the mountains were. We didn't even get to see the base of Denali when we went to the park. However, we did have some great critter sightings. We saw Alaska's 'Big Five' in one day: moose, caribou, Dall sheep, bears and a wolf. Plus we were very close to a great horned owl nest with two big, fuzzy babies in it and the adult sitting nearby, two foxes right next to the bus (one kept running in front of us even!) and attack arctic ground squirrels. The best sighting though, was of two big grizzlies hanging out next to the road. We stopped and watched them on the way into and out of the park. One just slept but the other wandered around a little. We got some great pictures with my new camera! I think we only took about 2400 or so pictures. There would have been more if the weather had been better! We had the opportunity to do a lot of hiking and even climbed a mountain at midnight! Gotta love that 24 hours of light, though Jon did have some trouble adjusting to it. I tried to warn him but I guess you just have to experience it to understand! Other fun events included climbing on a glacier, taking a boat out to watch glaciers calving, watching lots of float planes land, biking along the coast, riding on a dog sled (well, it was a cart since it was summer) and seeing lots of bear scat at the nature center I once worked at.

North to Alaska

2008-06-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to Alaska, though we weren't always sure we were going to make it! Our flight from Cedar Rapids to Minneapolis was delayed and we arrived just as our flight to Anchorage was supposed to leave. We raced all the way across the airport just to find that they delayed departure to make sure those on our connecting flight would make it in time. They hadn't even started boarding yet so I guess we didn't have to run but at least we got some good exercise, eh?

From the plane, the views of the mountains were gorgeous. We flew over Prince William Sound and saw lots of glaciers from above. It has been several years since I was last in Alaska and it was good to be back. Upon landing, I got good views of one of my favorite mountains, Mt. Susitna (aka 'Sleeping Lady') and another well-recognized one, Flattop. Our first critter sighting of the trip was of a moose and we saw it right in Anchorage, as we were beginning our hour-long journey to Wasilla, where we were staying at a friend's house while they were out of town. We didn't get a picture of it though because there was no place to stop and there was a lot of traffic.

First Passenger

2008-06-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

So...last Sunday was interesting. I got checked out in a Cessna 172, which is a bigger version of the 150. That night, I got to give my first ride to a passenger other than my flight instructor. Jon came along while I did 3 take offs and landings with my instructor and then we kicked Josh out and I took Jon flying over our house and then the Marion area. It was a gorgeous evening—nice and smooth and sunny. We flew past a couple of hot air balloons and took pictures looking down on them. Pretty cool!

When we headed back to Marion, however, we found a tricky situation awaiting us—those hot air balloons had landed in the middle of the runway! And I mean the middle both ways—right on the asphalt and in the middle north/south-wise. And there were about 20 people and children (and a dog) running around on the runway. Which meant we couldn’t land. I’m just glad we had plenty of fuel because we had to circle a bit while Jan tried to get them to move.

Well, they moved off the asphalt, barely. The balloons were still touching the edge and the crowd was right next to them. So I ended up doing a short and soft field landing in the grass on the other side of the runway so I wouldn’t hit them. Of course, just as I touched down, a flock of geese waddled (quickly changing to flying) right in front of us. We just missed them. Anyway, my landing was great and my unwanted audience waved and applauded and cheered. They did wonder why I “missed” the runway but it was explained to them that I landed on the grass to avoid hitting them since they were on the runway. I was less than pleased with their behavior but I guess it makes for an interesting story and everything turned out fine. Jon keeps saying that I didn’t have to prove to him that I am a good pilot—he would have been happy with just a nice, relaxing flight.

I'm a pilot!!!

2008-05-20T17:57:00.000-07:00

I know it has been a while since my last post but I've been busy working on my private pilot license and that hard work has finally paid off because today I passed my check ride and am now officially a pilot!!! Yea!!!

It was a long day but it was worth it. I arrived at the Marion Airport at 5:30 AM so I could do my flight plans and weather calculations before leaving for Marshalltown, IA, for my 9 AM check ride. I flew solo to Marshalltown where the examiner and I started going over the necessary paperwork, followed by an hour long oral test. I passed that and we got in the airplane and did several take offs and landings before heading out on a cross country trip I had planned. After 10 or so miles on the cross country, I had to do some maneuvers and flew under the hood. Nothing like flying blind!

Well, when I landed back at Marshalltown, I was informed that I had passed. Very exciting! There were several pilots in the lounge and they congratulated me. They were wondering if my next step was going to learn to fly the nice jet parked out in front. I doubt that will be my next step but who knows? Maybe someday. I think my next step is to get checked out in a bigger plane--a Cessna 172--so I can give rides. I know Jon is looking forward to riding with me but he won't fit in the little 150 I fly.

I flew back to Marion and was back home by 3 where I promptly took a nap. Hopefully now I will have more time to relax and get some things done around the house. And, of course, get some flying in!

Solo!

2008-03-16T18:56:00.000-07:00

Well, after months of being thwarted by weather, I was finally able to complete my first solo cross country flight. A couple weeks ago, I flew from Marion to Marshalltown to Oskaloosa and back. It was a beautiful, sunny wintery day and I'm pleased to announce that I didn't even get lost. There really isn't much to tell--mostly I just saw lots of towns and cars far below me.

For the past two months, I've been suffering from pain and stiffness in my neck and shoulders and for the past month from a rash on my arms. However, I'm happy to say that I finally found out what has been causing this. I have Fifth Disease but am starting to feel much better finally. Fifth Disease is nothing too serious so I'm glad that it isn't anything worse. Mostly it is just uncomfortable and it can last a long time but there is nothing to do to get rid of it except treat the symptoms. At least there are no lasting effects. Usually, it is children that get it but I guess that's what I get for working in a school. We've had several cases of Fifth Disease and I've worked with all those kids so I really shouldn't be surprised I came down with it.

As for Jon, he is doing well. He has been very busy with work and taking classes a couple of nights a week. Now that the weather has been nicer, he has been able to get a some outdoor projects done too. He has put a new roof on Bowser's kennel and mulched it and he has started the daunting task of cleaning up and organizing the garage. This coming week he has Spring Break so we'll also get to spend some more time together. Yea!

Be Ye Warned

2007-12-09T18:33:00.000-08:00

You are hereby warned that this blog may be different from my others. I just need to vent a little. Have you ever had strange things happen to you so that you begin to feel a bit paranoid? Well, that is happening to me lately. It all began when my computer at work started acting strangely. I work in a school library and once in a while the computer would scan in what I call "ghost books". I will have scanned a book for a student and two books will appear on the screen, each with different bar codes and titles. And only one of them has been scanned and the other is no where near the computer because it is still on the shelf. Then, last week, we seem to have discovered a "shelving elf". Books placed in the book return bin have been found shelved, before I can have a chance to check them in. Then just this past week, my email has gone awry. When trying to type new messages, the type is so tiny that I can't read it. I have been able to fix it but this problem shows up at random and I have no idea why.
Weird things happening have not just been restricted to the library either. At the airport when I was working, I went to print something and it wouldn't print. I hadn't even touched the computer before this but all of a sudden the printer just quit working. The computer seems to have decided to switch default printers all by itself.
Oh, then my phone has decided to go crazy. Once in a while, I have bumped it and it has started playing music. I understand this but a couple days ago, it was in my purse and I had at my feet in the car and it started playing, even though I hadn't moved it. I went to reach for it and it turned off before I could get even grab the purse. When we got home, I set the purse down and, after a few minutes, the phone started playing again. And, once again, as I approached the purse, the phone mysteriously turned off. Creepy.
The worst thing to happen though occurred last night. It was a cold evening--only 11 degrees or so --but it was raining. Our windshield was icing over so we had to turn on the defrost so we could see the road. Well, as we were sitting at a stoplight, the entire windshield cracked! All the way across! And my car is only 2 years old! My poor car! I haven't heard of this happening before! And I've lived in cold places all my life. One should be able to turn on the defrost in the winter without fear of breaking the windshield! Well, as some of you know, I tend to have a reputation for having things break around me but the past couple of weeks have really raised my level of paranoia. I realize that these occurrences are not that strange in and of themselves but when they start to add up like this, I just have to wonder...

Thanksgiving

2007-12-02T19:03:00.000-08:00

This year Thanksgiving was a bit different for us. We ended up driving to northern Minnesota to attend a wedding for one of Jon's friends. The wedding wasn't until day after Thanksgiving but we decided to drive up a couple days early to make it a "mini-vacation". The hotel we stayed in was very nice--it even had its own water park! And we had the water park to ourselves since there were very few people staying at the hotel. In fact, on Thanksgiving night, we literally were the only guests there! It was awesome!
On Thanksgiving, we spent the day hiking. We saw the beautiful Vermilion Falls and then we drove Echo Trail to Ely to go hiking at Bear Head Lake State Park. That was fun and brought back happy memories. My family used to camp at Bear Head during the summer while I was growing up. I enjoyed seeing it in the winter, with the lake frozen over. Unfortunately, hiking made us very hungry and we couldn't find any restaurants open where we could eat, that is, until we saw a sign for a casino. We figured the casino had to be open and, sure enough, it was. So we had our Thanksgiving meal there which made for the most unique Thanksgiving I've ever experienced.
The wedding was very nice. We had a good time seeing some of Jon's old friends. The groom was from West Africa so during the reception, some of the wedding party changed into African style clothes which was a neat touch.

New Blog

2007-12-02T15:13:00.000-08:00

Well, I have moved our blog to a new site so that people can post comments if they want. Hopefully this will work better than the last one. I have added our old posts to this site, too, in case you haven't seen them. Enjoy!

Archive

2007-12-02T14:09:00.000-08:00

10/15/07-Okay, we're still busy. Probably even busier than the last time I blogged. I got a second job at the Marion Airport so I've been working a couple days a week for the last couple of weeks. So far the weather hasn't been the greatest when I've worked so it hasn't been too busy. We also started going to a small group at our church. We've only gone one time so far but they seem nice there.

9/26/07-We have been very busy lately so I haven't had much time to blog or even check email. Work has been keeping Jon busy and he has added to his schedule by deciding to get his MBA , therefore studying for the GMAT test he needs to take to get in the program. He took a brief trio to Rochester a couple weeks ago for his dad's surgery which went well. This trip also coincided with a Rockwell recruiting trip that he was asked to attend so the timing worked quite nicely. This past weekend we went to a Celtic Festival at Usher's Ferry Historical Village. We had a good time. That same evening I survived my first night cross country flight. It was a GORGEOUS night for flying--clear and smooth. We flew to Dubuque, Waterloo, Cedar Rapids and back to Marion. I had a good time even though the flight kept me up way past my bedtime!

9/10/07-Let's see...what's been happening lately? Well, for starters, the fence is done and Bowser LOVES being able to run free. He often wants to go outside and doesn't even care if we're there or not and for those of you who know Bowser, you know how unusual that is for him since he usually wants me around ALL the time. Flying has been going well. A couple weeks ago, I did my first dual cross country flight. It was fun but there isn't really anything interesting to share--and that's a good thing! Mostly I flew over a bunch of small towns and cars and people and saw some areas of Iowa I wasn't familiar with. I flew to Oskaloosa, then to Marshalltown and back to Marion. It took about 3 hours or so. This past weekend, Jon and I went to a gun show here in town. It was a good sized show but it didn't really have what we were looking for.

8/29/07-Well, it has been awhile since I last wrote. Here are a few things we've been up to in the last couple of weeks. We drove to Dubuque to visit the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium and explored Mines of Spain State Park while we were there as well. I started back to work last week. Jon has been working lots of overtime. I haven't been able to fly much due to work and weather. However, I did fly to Cedar Rapids and did some touch and go's last week. Then this week I soloed away from the airport and practiced some ground reference maneuvers and I didn't even get lost. We almost have a fence--the gates just need to be put in. But we did block them off so Bowser could run around free in the yard a bit. He had a great time.

8/10/07-Praise the Lord! Today we received good news about my dad. He had a CT scan this morning and the blood clots and nodules in his lungs are all disappearing! One of the nodules is actually completely gone. That means they aren't cancer so we're very relieved. Thank you to all of you who have been praying for him. His birthday is tomorrow and this was a very happy birthday present for him and all of us.

8/5/07-Today was a bit of a crazy flying lesson. There was another student flying the pattern and a crop duster without a radio flying around the airport and then I had to deal with all of that while flying solo. I didn't really appreciate the crop duster--it was spraying the fields next to and at the end of the runway. Several times he flew past the runway while I was taking off and then he flew under me several times as I was climbing. Later that evening, there was a story on the news about a crop duster that crashed. Turns out it was the same one that was flying around the airport during my lesson. Here are links to the news articles:

Crop Duster Crash 1

8/1/07-Today turned out differently than I expected. I had a flying lesson in the morning and my mom was in town so she came to watch. I knew I was going to be doing take-offs and landings so I figured it would be fun for her to see. Anyway, after doing 3 take-offs and landings, my flight instructor told me it was time for me to fly on my own so he jumped out (don't worry, we were on the ground) and told me to do 3 more take-offs and landings on my own. So I did! My first solo flight! It was pretty exciting! And I even had an audience and was able to get pictures of this momentous occasion. Check out the Pictures section to see some photos of my first solo!

7/29/07-This last week or so was pretty busy for us. First of all, last weekend our good friend, Val, came for a visit so she and I spend most of our time shopping. We left poor Jon home by himself to put up the chandelier and assemble our new swing. He's so wonderful! Secondly, Jon and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary by going out to a movie. Boy, prices sure have gone up at the theaters! I took my Private Pilot's Knowledge (written) Test on Wednesday and passed with a nice score of 92%. On Friday and Saturday, Jon and I went to a "Welcome to the Family" class at a church we've been regularly attending for a more in-depth look at what they believe. Then Saturday night we went to dinner at one of Jon's co-workers homes which was fun.

7/18/07-Well, the adventures continue for us here in Iowa. We went shopping today and almost didn't survive. When Jon came home from work, we decided to go to Lowe's to get a few things since we had a coupon for them. Anyway, they had 2 out of 3 items we wanted. The one thing that I really wanted was gone--a crystal chandelier--and to make matters worse, it had just been marked down 75%. Inquiring about it, we discovered they still had them in Coralville (about 23 miles south of us) so we decided to go down there to make our purchases. As soon as we loaded up the car and started driving out of town, we encountered ominous wall clouds and strong winds. Turning on the radio, we discovered we were under a Tornado Warning and, looking at the weather conditions surrounding us, we were in the worst of it. Anyway, we survived and can say we had an adrenaline rush after shopping-- a new experience for both of us!

7/13/07-Today for my flying lesson, instead of flying, I took my pre-solo test. Yesterday, I worked on crosswind take-offs and landings. Jon and I also started our ground school course on Wednesday. Of about 30 in the class, only 3 have actually flown, myself being one of them. Many are just interested in learning more about aviation, since they work in an aviation company so it was rather amusing to hear some of their thoughts--when discussing the requirements to obtain a private pilot's license, one person asked how many of those hours were in a simulator and were surprised to find that ALL of the hours were spent flying in an actual airplane!

7/8/07-Jon, Bowser and I just returned from a trip to North Dakota to visit Jon's family. We stayed at his parents' lake cabin and had lots of fun kayaking, pontooning, target shooting, flying, cutting down dead trees, roasting marshmallows over a campfire and, of course, shooting off fireworks. Be sure to check out the Pictures page for some pictures from our trip.

6/28/07-I had another flying lesson today in a Cessna 150. I practiced slow flights and stalls. I also did 2 take offs and landings. These were rather tricky as there was a crosswind (wind blowing across the runway). But I didn't crash and that's always a good thing! After my lesson, I finally got to see the cougar, Thor, that lives at the airport. Don't worry, he's in a cage but he's pretty shy so normally doesn't let himself be seen. It just seems appropriate that I ended up at an airport that has a cougar since I've had a bit of experience with cougars. There even was a cougar spotted at our wedding!

6/26/07-For those of you who haven't heard, I (Whitney) have started taking flying lessons in a brave attempt to get my pilot's license. Anyway, today I had my 4th lesson. It has been a few days since I flew because the weather didn't cooperate this weekend. We got to do some steep turns (banking at a 45 degree angle) and some stalls. I also got to do the landing. Good times!

6/23/07-Well, since we moved to Iowa we thought it would be a good idea to start a web page to keep people up to date on what is going on with us, that is, if they really want to know. We'll see just how well we actually keep up with this thing.